The Life of the Myanmar Refugees

Breadcrumb

The Life of the Myanmar Refugees

"My wife is sick for 3 days but I only have RM50 on hands for all our expenses before the next pay day. How can I afford to send her to see the doctor?"

"The local police and RELA keep extorting money from us instead of helping us. They tear up our UN identification papers, raid our house and do full body check on us to search for money. They take our money even if we are left with 50 cents. When will we be able to escape from their bullies and from losing our hard-earned money?"

"Are my children and wife safe in our home country? I miss them so much but I know I cannot go back. How does our future look like? When can we live without all these worries?"

Every day, these kinds of thoughts haunt the group of 50+ Myanmar refugees who are staying in two small flat units at Jalan Imbi, at the capital centre in Malaysia. Their living condition is poor. They barely have enough fresh food and usually eat chicken bones with rice. Sickness visits them as regular as friends. For some men, their wives and children are thousands miles away and they live everyday with the risk of not able to see them ever again. For men with families, they fear they cannot provide for their wives and children. Hopes and dreams have deserted them for most of the times. Worries come like swarm of flies, uninvited and hard to drive away. It is like they have escaped from one hell, only to end up in another, so to speak.

Despite the harsh reality, they are not completely at lost. At the very least, I think they are blessed with 3 invaluable things:

First, their faith in God and Christianity is strong. They pray with remarkable intensity.

Second, there are at least some warm-hearted people who care about them -a group of generous Christians from CDPC has been looking after them for about 1 year now for 1 group and another group for few months.Visits are 1-2 times a month; rice, fresh vegetables, chickens, clothes, Vitamin C, medicine, games for the children- are given. They love songs, and sharing of the Word of God. I say, most of all, they need love and hope.

So, the third blessing is also their love. Though they are deprived of many other things, they are not short of love to give. They love their families. They love and help each other.

I think and believe this. Though life is difficult, we can only sink so low but we won’t stay there forever. With even a little spirit and faith left, and most of the time, with helps from some generous people, we are going to rise up and have a future that we may never dream of. Not only we create a future for ourselves, but we also create a future for our children, so that they do not need to go through the same hardship we have been through. Even though we may not become rich, but we are in many ways, successful.

And every little piece of dignity that is restored will lead to that.

CDPC Care Bank, continue to give more cos each time you give, it is a piece of your heart that you are giving! Thank you.